The awkward thing about the Attention Training Technique is that the common ways of getting it wrong all feel like doing it well. A session where you stayed calm, kept the thoughts out, and never lost the thread sounds like a good one. By the manual’s own description, it may be a session where you practised something else entirely[1].
Wells’ treatment manual devotes a section of its ATT chapter to exactly this — including a heading on misuse as avoidance or symptom management[1]. What follows is that guidance, sorted into the mistakes it names.
The short version
| Doing it right | Doing it wrong |
|---|---|
| Attention gets captured; you notice and return it to the named sound[1] | Trying to stop thoughts arriving, or blanking the mind[1] |
| Thoughts, images and feelings pass as additional noise[1] | Treating an intrusive thought as proof the session failed[1] |
| Practised on a schedule, when you are not anxious or acutely worried[1] | Reaching for it to escape a worry spiral or manage a symptom[1] |
| Effortful; expected to stay demanding with practice[1] | Judging the session by how relaxed or calm it left you[1] |
| Full engagement with the sounds being named[1] | Daydreaming, or worrying in parallel while the audio plays[1] |
Mistake 1 — trying to suppress the thoughts
This is the big one, and the script pre-empts it. Intruding thoughts, images and feelings are to be treated as additional noise and should not be resisted[1]; the instruction is that you must not try to stop them, and that you should think of them as passing inner noises[1].
Wells is direct about the misconception here — that the technique should block out thoughts — and states that the exercise is not intended to lead to a blank mind, and that it counteracts the use of active thought suppression[1]. Suppression is not a stricter version of ATT. It is a different activity, and one the exercise is built to work against.
Mistake 2 — treating intrusions as failure
Related, and just as common. The manual observes that some patients assume they were unable to practise effectively because they had intrusive thoughts[1]. The aim of the technique, it states, is not to remove awareness of inner events but to practise controlling attention in a particular way[1].
A session with a lot of intrusions and a lot of returning is not a failed session. Structurally it is a session with a lot of repetitions in it.
Mistake 3 — using it to cope in the moment
The protocol places ATT as scheduled practice: it is practised when participants are not in a state of anxiety or acute worry[1]. And it should not be employed as a distraction, avoidance, or symptom-management strategy, nor is it intended as an emotion-management strategy[1] — with misuse as avoidance or symptom management named as its own concern in the chapter[1].
This is the mistake that is hardest to feel as a mistake, because reaching for the exercise when you feel bad is such a natural instinct. But an exercise used to make a feeling go away is being trained as an escape route, which is the opposite of what it is for.
Mistake 4 — expecting it to feel good
ATT is designed to be attentionally demanding, and not to become substantially less demanding with practice — otherwise, Wells writes, it would not systematically strengthen control processes[1]. The manual frames the technique for patients as a form of general “mental fitness training” rather than avoidance[1].
Effort is not a sign you are struggling with it. In a component study that collected effort ratings per phase, the attention-switching phase drew the highest ratings of the three[2] — the hardest-feeling part of the session is a documented feature of it.
Mistake 5 — the quiet ones
The manual lists strategies that leave a session looking normal from the outside while hollowing it out: thought suppression, daydreaming, and diverting attention to worry[1] — including dividing your attention between rumination and the sounds[1].
Twelve minutes of audio can pass with the worry running underneath it. That is the failure mode with no obvious symptom.
Mistake 6 — checking whether it’s working
Monitoring the exercise for results turns the session into an assessment of yourself, which puts attention back where the exercise is trying to take it from. The manual’s stance is that ATT trains the control of attention rather than managing what you are experiencing at the time[1].
Judge a session by whether you kept bringing your attention back. That is the thing you were actually asked to do.
So what does a correct session feel like?
Often like not much. Sounds you keep losing. A voice naming the next one. Thoughts arriving and being left to pass. A stretch in the middle where the switching feels too fast. And at the end, no particular emotional payoff — which the manual would call the exercise behaving as specified, not a session that failed.
For the exercise in full, see the Attention Training Technique explained; for what the voice actually asks for, see what the ATT script says.
Questions and answers
- How do I know if I'm doing ATT correctly?
- By whether you keep returning your attention to the named sound — not by whether you felt calm, focused well, or avoided distraction. The manual expects attention to be captured repeatedly; refocusing is the exercise.
- Is it wrong to have thoughts during ATT?
- No. The manual instructs that intruding thoughts be treated as additional noise and not resisted, and notes the misconception that intrusive thoughts mean the practice was ineffective.
- Can I use ATT when I'm anxious or spiralling?
- The protocol has it practised when the person is not in a state of anxiety or acute worry. Using it to manage a symptom in the moment is named in the manual as misuse.
References
- Wells, A. (2009). Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression. Guilford Press. Chapter 4: Attention Training Techniques.
- Rosenbaum, D., Maier, M. J., Hudak, J., Metzger, F. G., Wells, A., Fallgatter, A. J., & Ehlis, A.-C. (2018). Neurophysiological correlates of the attention training technique: A component study. NeuroImage: Clinical, 19, 1018–1024. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6039840/
Published by the makers of Heed, an app for practicing ATT-style sessions. iPhone · Android. Heed is a self-practice tool inspired by ATT research — not therapy, and not a medical device.